"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter —it's the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning." -Mark Twain

Thursday, July 23, 2009

On the Lighter Side...

Somebody outside of the translation community who gets it!

"Translating words and concepts from one language to another can be a difficult and nuanced project. Ask any exchange student who’s ever tried to put the moves on a local. It’s tricky. There are shades of meaning. There are idiomatic expressions. There’s a whole world of difference between “mouth” and “grub-hole.” There are scholars for whom translation is a lifetime’s toil. People are still squabbling over what the heck the Bible says. President Kennedy may very well have been a jelly donut."This is the beginning of the description for a shirt at shirt woot. Check out the shirt!Shirt Woot